New Challenges
by myownkingdom
Summary: What if Lara had a best friend with her on the trip to Yamatai to find Himiko? What would the others think of her? And will she survive?
1. Chapter 1

A famous explorer once said "The extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are." At least, that's what my dad has always told me. I'm pretty sure that I'll continue to remember that for the rest of my life. It reminds me of the days when I was feeling down and he would tell me that and then he would get me a bowl of ice cream and tell me how much I meant to him.

I guess you could say that I definitely take after my dad. He was always the one that I looked up to and who I always turned to for advice. I guess you could also say that's why I'm where I am right now. In my bedroom, looking at notes and maps and anything else that could help me in my upcoming expedition. Books were stacked almost two feet high, and I had a pretty bad headache from staring at words for too long.

My upcoming expedition would be with my best friend Lara Croft. She has always been my expedition buddy, from age five to twenty-one. Her dad and my dad were best friends, and, of course, that automatically meant that Lara and I were destined to be best friends and become attached to the hip. I am not going to deny that that is what had happened.

They were both very famous archaeologists and explorers and did everything together, just like Lara and I. We went on to do the same thing as them, and this is why we are going on an expedition to find the lost queen Himiko. The only problem is that nobody knows where she is, hence the name 'lost queen'. I guess that should have been obvious.

I look up from my work as someone knocks on the door to go let them in. "Hey Ashton." Lara says, walking into my apartment like she lived here too. I mean, she might as well. She stayed over here for the majority of the time while we were in college studying archaeology and mythology. "The boat is leaving at three. Are you almost ready to go?" she asks as I look at the clock. It was two in the afternoon.

"Yeah, all my bags are packed. I've taken all the notes that I can on these books, so I'm not going to bring them with me. Can you hand me my laptop bag?" I ask Lara and she nods, handing it over to me. "Thanks." I smile and grab my other bags, taking my keys and lock the door behind me. We head down the staircase of my apartment building and get into Lara's car as she starts driving us to the docks where the boat would be.

We get there half an hour later as we unload our bags from the car. I could see our ship, the 'Endurance', in the distance. I could also see people making last minute adjustments to the boat before it was ready to take us out to sea. The only problem was that our destination was totally unknown, so who knows how long before we'll even get to where we need to go.

We start walking down the dock, and are approached by Roth, who was a really good family friend to Lara. "Hi Roth!" she says, giving him a hug. "It's good to see you." He shakes my hand as I tell him my name. Hopefully this awkward stage won't last long at all. I hate awkward moments. He helps us load all of our bags onto the boat and then we come out and help everyone else in the crew get theirs loaded up. By the time we got done, it was almost three.

When it was three o'clock on the dot, we were still waiting for my boyfriend Riley. He was always late. I hadn't talked that much to Alex in any way, but I knew immediately that he would wind up being just like him. They were both really techie guys. I guess his knowledge of technology had never rubbed off on me while we were hanging out together. That's probably a good thing though.

I was glad to get on the boat and just start going somewhere. I spent most of the first two hours on the boat getting to know everybody. There was Sam, Alex, Jonah, Grim, Reyes, Roth, and then the very annoying Dr. Whitman. I barely spent ten minutes with the guy, and I already have decided that I really don't like him all that much. He was really obsessed with his own success and fame.

During our first dinner as an expedition team, we decided that we should start by heading west. According to Dr. Whitman, it's where the people that have tried finding Himiko went before us. I don't really know what that is going to get us, considering we only know the general area of where we should be going, and that is a large area to cover. Who knows how long we'll be out here now?

After dinner, I spend my time on my laptop, writing about what had happened so far. Supposedly this was going to be a really famous story, so Dr. Whitman asked me to keep a journal about what was happening. I didn't care too much for fame and fortune, but I did it just to make him happy. Just for now though. Sam was recording everything by video, so remind me to lock my door when I go to take a shower.

"So what do you think so far?" Lara asks, coming into our shared bedroom and sitting on her bed that was directly across from mine. We decided to share rooms since no one else wanted to. Seriously, what's the problem with sharing a bedroom with someone? It's not like they'd be sleeping in the same bed. I take my ear buds out to answer her question.

"I like it so far, but Dr. Whitman is definitely an annoying twat. I already can't stand him and I barely even know the guy. What do you think?" She nods in agreement about Dr. Whitman and we laugh about it. It was nice to be able to laugh with your best friend. It's one of those little joys in life that not many people pay attention to.

We spend a little bit more time talking before we decide to call it a night. I was really worn out. I don't know if it was just the whole idea of what lies ahead, or it was just my brain tricking me. Either way, I fell asleep pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow. That's about how tired that I was.

I awake to blinding lights seeping in through the windows and I sigh, getting up and closing them so I could try and get some more sleep. On the way back to my bed, I trip over something on the floor, barely catching myself with my hands. I hear Lara start to wake up and we both start laughing at the fact that she was on the floor. I don't really know why. It really wasn't that funny.

We finish laughing and get up to go get breakfast. Jonah was making the food this morning, as he did last night. Let me put it this way. If Jonah's eggs are as good as his steaks, we are going to have a breakfast fit for a king. He is literally one of the best cooks that I have ever seen. He sets a plate in front of me and I immediately start to eat it. After I finish up, I head to the front of the ship to look out at the ocean.

It really was a beautiful sight. As I watch the waves flow, I can't help but wonder exactly how I got so lucky. Not only was I doing what I loved, but I was doing it with some really great people. I couldn't wait for this expedition to really get going. There is nothing better than being the one to uncover the truth about something that people had doubted all along. It's a magical type of feeling.

"Hi Ashton." I hear Alex say as he comes up to stand next to me, setting his hands on the railing like I was doing. "What are you doing up here?" he asks, looking out to the beautiful waters. You could almost see the amazement in his eyes. I bet if you looked into my eyes, you would see the same thing, just pure amazement. It was incredibly breathtaking.

"I'm just thinking." I sigh with content as I watch a group of dolphins in the water, making me smile. There wasn't really anything that needed to be said. It wasn't an awkward silence, but one that you could just feel comfortable with the silence. It was one of those times when it gave you peace.

"Do you think we'll find her?" he asks me, and I smile and nod at him. I was almost one hundred percent sure that we would find her. Surely we'd find something from heading west, right? Maybe one of the locals could give us helpful hints before we actually started doing anything inside of ancient ruins or anything like that. It's quite a good strategy if you ask me.

"Ashton, do you mind coming here for a moment?" Dr. Whitman asks and I turn around to see him about eight feet away from me. Well, I did mind, but I nod and follow him to the hallways and he pulls my notes from behind his back. I snatch them from him quickly. Where did he get those? I sure didn't give them to him! "Your notes, they're – uh – they're very amateur."

"Excuse me? How can notes be amateur? I just took what I saw in the books and wrote down the most important things so I wouldn't have to cart them all the way out here." I snap back at him. Exactly what kind of right did he have going through my things to find my notes, and then call them amateur? I'd like to see his so called professional notes. I angrily huff like an annoyed child and walk away from him, putting my notes back in my room, but hidden under my bed this time.

"What was that about?" Riley asks me as I emerge from my room as he was waiting for me in the hallway outside, and he obviously heard the conversation. I tell him about it, trying to keep my anger under lock and key, especially since I would be on a boat in the middle of the ocean for a long while. "Well, I don't think your notes are amateur. Lara and you have this archaeology business down to a science. There's no way you can mess up." I smile at him, even though he was a very bad liar.

"Well you look angry." Sam says as we head back into the main area of the ship, which is where she was set up trying to film some things for our documentary. I am angry, but it wasn't too much to fret about. I just hope that he would not snoop through my things again and maybe apologize? That'd be good. I shrug my shoulders at her and sit down at the table to watch her filming Jonah trying to teach Whitman to cut open a fish, but let's just say that he should just stick to archaeology and let Jonah handle the food.

Lara and Roth both come into the area and they sit down with me at the table. Grim hands us all some coffee. We thank him as he sits down next to Riley and I to see the mess that was unfolding. Grim reminded me so much of my grandfather. He was as hard-headed and stubborn as Grim was that it is almost creepy. They could probably be twin brothers.

I guess seeing him be so much my like my grandfather kind of made me upset as well. He died a few years back. Of course, nobody could replace him, but it also nice to have somebody around that reminded me so much of him. I was feeling luckier and luckier to be on this expedition by the second. I had a feeling that I was going to walk away from this with a lot more friends then I came here with.

"So, Ashton," Roth says as I direct my attention to him. "Lara tells me that you and your dad would join Lara and her dad on many expeditions." I smile at him and nod. "So you both learned your amazing skills from two amazing archaeologists?" he asks and Lara and I both nod again. I was glad that somebody was asking about my dad. Usually, everyone that I came across would know about what my dad and I did. It makes me excited that I came across somebody that wants me to give them the details instead of them just knowing.

Reyes comes out pretty soon, meaning that we were all finally here. It felt like a family reunion almost. Sharing stories, cracking jokes, and always trying to be nice to that one bitter one that I always try to pretend and like for the sake of not causing any family drama. Dr. Whitman was that guy. He was totally that annoying family member that no one wants to sit with at dinner but still loves them anyways.

It was nice to have a good expedition team. I could tell that we were starting to get closer and closer. I hope that it stays that way. A good expedition team means that I will definitely have a lot to look forward to in these upcoming weeks. I sure hope that I was right about this.


	2. Chapter 2

We had been on the Endurance for three weeks already. Lara and I were doing what usually did after the evening meals. We would go over our notes and maps and see if there could possibly be anything that we missed about Himiko as Riley would sit around on his laptop, trying to make conversation to two girls that were never listening due to the fact that we were too focused to even think about listening. We had just made an amazing discovery and went to go speak with Dr. Whitman right away. However, as soon as we told him our plans, he shut us down immediately.

Lara and Dr. Whitman were arguing as I took in our little setup we had. I had been on this boat for only three weeks, after all. There are some things that take a little bit longer getting used to than others. This is definitely one of those things. "How can you even think to say that I'm not putting one hundred percent into this expedition?" Dr. Whitman says angrily towards Lara. "Sam and I have both put our savings on the line here!"

Reyes gets her two words in, saying that the funding will not last forever, and it absolutely won't if he keeps pushing us in the wrong direction. "That's exactly why we need to start heading east, as soon as possible." I butt in, trying to keep myself from screaming at him. I knew that I was totally right about not liking him. "We've talked to Roth about this. What point is there in going where people have failed to find Yamatai?"

"Look." Lara says with a sigh, clearly starting to lose her patience. "Ashton and I have both talked about this, and going east will take us to the Dragon's Triangle. It's where we need to go! We're not even far from it. I promise you, Dr. Whitman." The boys continue to cheer about some football game as we were stating out plea. This really is not fair. We have done countless research on Himiko and Yamatai, and this is where we needed to go.

"No one believes that-" Dr. Whitman starts before getting interrupted by Roth, Jonah, and Grim. "No one believes that Yamatai is that far east. Any information about finding it and Himiko do not support your silly little theory." he says, making me want to punch him right in the face and ruin his expensive dentistry. Why do I have to be a relatively nice person?

"Well, with all due respect, Dr. Whitman, any information was never written by anybody that actually found Yamatai and Himiko. Doing this would probably take us right where we need to go." Riley says as he stands behind me, supporting us with every word. Best person award of the year goes to Riley Poole.

"The weather there is terrible. It makes the Bermuda Triangle look like the happiest place on Earth. You could sign me up for that any day." Alex says, dampening my spirit. Even Jonah agrees that the place seems like it has trouble written all over it. That may be, but what does it matter? We've put too much into getting this far to just drop it and go in the wrong direction, however safe the wrong direction may be.

"The stories about Himiko say she could summon storms. If that's why that place does not have a good reputation, then it is our best bet to head in that direction if we ever even want to have a small chance of finding her. Myths usually have some truth to it, Dr. Whitman!" I almost yell as he leans his head back in a frustrated manner. Who did this guy think he was?

"Enough!" Roth says, getting up from his chair. "We don't have enough money to go in the wrong direction! If these two say we should we could go in that direction, I'd bet my life on them being right. It's now or never. You seem to be forgetting it's my decision, and I'm saying that we're heading to the Dragon's Triangle. Now come on you two. Show us your plan."

I let out a little bit of a cheer and a squeal combined as I get up from by chair and go to stand on the opposite side of Roth, showing him the best route we could take and where we would go when we got there. Now that things were finally heading in the right direction, I was confident that we would eventually find Yamatai, and then Himiko after that.

After we were done discussing our plan, I headed into my bedroom to get a good night's sleep after kissing Riley good night. "I'm going to stay up and think for a while if that's all right with you." Lara says, keeping the light on above her bed. I ask her if she's all right. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to think about some things before heading to sleep."

I turn my light off and start to go to sleep. I didn't even bother changing into different clothes. I just really did not feel like it. I even left my shoes on. They were my trusty combat boots. I've been through a lot of expeditions with them. I also had some khaki pants that were kind of tight but kind of loose at the same time tucked into my boots. I had my flannel shirt on and my hair up in a simple ponytail.

I didn't even get much sleep because the boat just kept making constant noises. It made me nervous, but I knew that if something was wrong, they would come to us almost immediately so that we could make a quick escape from the boat. The next thing I know, there was a strike of lighting and the boat rocking forward. Lara starts to shake me awake, even though I was never asleep, but I had a feeling that it really wasn't going to matter much.

Alarms start blaring and everything goes dark. The only thing lighting it up was the alarms flashing a really bright red. I stand up quickly, but only for us to both get knocked to the ground, and I hit my chin on the floor. I let out a groan of pain and quickly stand up. We make our way out of our shared bedroom as the boat starts swaying back and forth even more. It was complete and utter madness.

"Do you hear that, Ash?" Lara asks me. I didn't even get a chance to respond before a huge wave of water suddenly comes down the hallway, engulfing us both. We were quickly swept along, and Lara grabs my hand so we wouldn't be separated as she uses her other hand to grab onto a ladder that led up to the upper deck. The window would not open or even break, and the water just started getting higher and higher. Suddenly, everything just went black.

A burst of light came through as Jonah opens the hatch, pulling us both out. The boat breaks completely in half, both of us being separated from the rest of the crew. I squinted, but I could just barely see Roth in the distance, signaling to come toward him. For us to jump across. Across water. In a terrible storm. I grab Lara's hand this time, and she starts running, me not missing a beat and following right behind her. And once we reach the end, we jump.

Miraculously, Lara grasps Roth's hand and he tries pulling us both up. I knew deep down inside that it wasn't going to work as the water makes her lose her grip on his hand. "No!" Roth screams after us and at this point, everything just seemed to go in slow motion. We had let go of each other and were now falling into the water.

I land with a huge splash and surface very quickly, gasping for air. I find Lara right behind me and we both start swimming to shore, trying desperately to keep our heads above water. You have no idea how hard that is to do in a middle of a storm. I drag my body onto the sand as the tide keeps coming up and getting me even more wet than before. Lara comes right behind me, coughing up water and looks like some blood.

I see everyone up in the distance, illuminated by the moon. "Help!" Lara yells over to them as I follow suit. They clearly didn't hear us since they just keep doing what they were doing. Lara tries standing up and barely makes it onto her knees before she is knocked back down again with a gasp. She wouldn't respond to me, no matter how many times I tried shaking her. I quickly turn around to see if I could find her attacker, but he or she was nowhere to be found. I try sitting up the best I could with my very tired body when I hear a rustle in the bushes.

I turn around and only catch the glimpse of a hooded man dressed in black as I was knocked unconscious, right along with Lara. I don't know what happened to get me into this mess. I knew that the Dragon's Triangle had storms, but I didn't know that they were this bad. This is just ridiculous. I awaken only for a few mere seconds to the sound of something heavy being dragged before I blacked out again.

I awake, only this time, I was hanging by my feet, upside down. I look over to Lara who was in the same position I was in, only right across from me. She was wrapped up in a very strange cocoon looking thing, so I'm guessing I was the same way. "Lara!" I quietly yell in case there was anyone nearby. I didn't hear anything, so I'm assuming that there wasn't anyone. "Lara!" I yell a bit louder this time and she awakes with a large gasp.

She finally realizes our surroundings and looks like she is about to scream. "Help!" she yells and I could tell that she suddenly got an idea. She starts swinging back and forth on her rope as she still screams for help. "Jonah! Reyes! Riley!" I join in with her, calling for help. She swings into the other cocoon to the right of her and knocks it into the fire coming from the candles. The cocoon burns as a skeleton drops down, causing it to break the very fragile floor.

"Oh god." I say, starting to panic more than just a little bit. "I don't want to die like this." Lara was really being brave as she knocks herself in the fire, causing her cocoon to burn as well, dropping her to the ground and I hear her scream all the way down. I hear a very loud groan followed by a scream of pain. "I'm coming Lara!" I yell down to her and do exactly as she did. It really wasn't a bad idea.

I start falling down and only narrowly miss Lara. She was holding her left side in pain. I finally got a closer look at the wound and realized how bad it was. "Oh no." she says, looking at it as well. She had some kind of spike going straight through her left side. It is so very lucky that it did not hit any vital organs. If it did, I'd probably be on my own. "Ashton, please pull it out!" she cries, and I can tell she is on the verge of tears.

I nod at her as she applies pressure to the area and I start pulling it out with more screams of pain coming from her. I could almost feel her pain. Why did I let her go first? We get it out and she has tears rolling down her face as she keeps gasping for breath in an attempt to calm down. I help her up and look around at my surroundings down here as well. It was a circular room that was lined with skeletons. I shudder in disgust and help Lara over to the only exit.

She tries to tell me that she can walk on her own, but as soon as she takes her first step without me, she falls flat on her face. It would have been funny had she not been in excruciating pain. I help her up and we continue walking slowly down the hallway. I know that we'd definitely have to pick up the pace eventually, but just not now. I just never really wanted that time to ever come.

She leans over a pole as she gasps, seeing what was ahead of us. A body was hanging over a bunch of candles by the arms. I lean over to the side and start puking up what was left of my dinner from last night. My throat burned and my eyes were watery as I stand back up. Lara was looking up at the body with horrified eyes that just screamed terror as she moved closer. "Just keep moving." she whispers to me, grasping onto my hand, probably to make herself feel better, but it definitely made me a little less scared to know my best friend was by my side.


	3. Chapter 3

We push forward as I run into some metal things hanging on a string from the ceiling. I start to worry. What if there was someone in here with us and he or she heard that? What if they know we escaped from whatever entrapment they put us in and were coming to find us and I just alerted them of our location? All of the sudden, we both stop short as there were faint echoes coming from somewhere in the cave. They must have heard us.

I lead Lara through the cave and grab a torch so that we could light up the rest of the way. Immediately after we got it though, we had to pass through a small waterfall that put the torch out. I curse and grab the torch from Lara, hoping it was dry enough to be lit on fire again. Apparently it was because as soon as I stuck in a hanging pot of fire used to light up the place, it caught fire again.

It was only then that I took in my surroundings of this area. There were some wooden planks covering what looked to be the only exit. Right next to that was a red barrel, no doubt filled with some kind of explosive fuel or gas or something like that. Leading up to the planks and red barrel were very thin pieces of cloth hanging off chunks of wood. I hand Lara the torch as I figure out what to do. I climb up on a very unstable wooden structure as Lara tosses the torch back up to me. I use it to light the cloth on fire as I watch the flame ignite it all the way towards the barrel.

Of course, a chain reaction happens and it exploded, causing the wooden planks to obviously be destroyed, making our only path out of this room clear. We quickly clear the area by climbing up on the structure across from where I was just a minute ago. The person probably heard that too, and now definitely knows where we are. There's no way around that fact.

Everything started rumbling as I quickly passed underneath a tiny little area where the rock being hold up by wood was about to crack. I hurry and get through so that Lara could make it before the rock collapsed on top of her. I really don't know how I would make it without her. We've been through every single dangerous situation that you could possibly imagine together.

All of the sudden, I see a crazy looking man jump down behind Lara as I let out a scream. "Let go!" she yells at the top of her lungs. He had a hold of her combat boot and was definitely not giving up easy. I grab onto her arms and start pulling her as hard as I could while she was struggling against the man's crazy strong grip. We finally get her away from him and we sit staring at the rock in shock as we hear him yelling from the other side to come back. Yeah, like we would ever think about doing that.

We put out the torch so that all of the wood in the next tunnel would not catch on fire. We had to squat down in water, and we fell down all of the sudden. It had gotten a lot deeper, and my tip toes did not even touch the bottom. We work on keeping our heads above water as we make our way down the creepy tunnel. "Lara, I'm really scared." I admit as we were practically bobbing along in the water.

"I am too, Ashton, don't worry." she says as we continue to hear the guy pleading for us to come back. We make it to the end and pass through another waterfall, but it didn't really matter since we had already put our torch out. I see more explosives by the exit, and I could only tell it was the exit because I saw daylight coming through. "What kind of contraption is this?" Lara says as she sees the weird looking setup in front of us.

"It looks like some kind of weight." I get more fire from the hanging pot of light and set the wooden poles holding the giant birdcage looking thing that was hanging from the ceiling. I think this made the contraption able to be pushed down. It put a metal thing down that seemed to collect the boxes and barrels. "It looks like we'll be able to make the barrels and boxes rise high enough to get to the ramp, and then we can set them on fire to make an explosion by the exit."

Lara hands me back the torch and climbs up the ramp, making a daring jump from the edge to the weight. It rose up a little bit, but not enough to make it to the other ramp and past the waterfall. Lara beckons me onto the weight as well, so I toss her the torch and she is careful not to drop it as I make the jump as well, landing with my stomach hitting the edge, hard. I can only imagine how that felt for Lara with her injury.

With our weight combined, it was enough to raise the boxes and barrels onto the ramp as they slide down into the water, but only after we set them on fire. Luck seemed to be on our side today since the fire wasn't put out as they dropped down and started to float towards the red barrels, due to the tide. We quickly get down and hide behind a wooden board as everything explodes, and I mean everything. The cave started crumbling and I knew that this was the time that we needed to pick up the pace.

Everything was on fire, and we had to really start rushing through the water, which really wasn't an easy task. We definitely had to start running. This must have been really killing Lara's side to be doing this. We really need to get some first aid for that as soon as possible. We continue running as rocks fall down to block the path that we were heading on. There really was no time to think as the floor underneath us crumbled, and we were forced to slide down and crash through wooden planks and prickly thorns.

Lara and I come out at water, only this time it was very, very shallow, so we were able to run as quick as possible through it. We started running again and the rocks started falling apart. We had no choice but to jump across. I hesitated, but I knew I had to act quickly if I wanted to live. We jump across four platforms and I only made it by grasping with my hands on one of them. It was a very big gap, mind you. When we make it all the way across, it's back to running again.

A rock fell down and left only a little tiny space for us to squeeze through. Lara goes first this time, and I guess I got what was coming when the crazy man grabbed onto my foot this time. I screamed as loud as I could, even though it didn't make any difference. I struggle against him as the rock starts to get lower and lower, and Lara starts pulling at my arms harder than he was pulling at my legs. I kick him in the face last minute and get away from him, but it took everything in me not to puke as he was crushed by rocks.

The rocks started coming in closer as we ran down the hallway. Lara went first and jumped across the gap, barely making it onto the platform. I follow suit as she starts to climb up, and I narrowly miss getting knocked off by a rock more than a few times. I could tell that the exit was getting smaller, so Lara and I hurry even faster than before. She makes it through just fine, but I was worried for myself. Luckily, I squeeze through just before the rock collapsed, letting out a gasp of shock and relief that we both made it out okay.

Lara was waiting for me while looking out at the horizon. It looked like the sun had just risen, making it somewhere around six or seven if I'm not mistaken. My flannel was torn to shreds, so I just shrug it off, leaving me in my tank top. Problem with this tank top was that my boobs were nearly hanging out. That would be quite awkward when I meet up with the rest of the group, but I really doubt that they would care.

We barely make it down the very high up path before Lara has to stop and lean against a tree to catch her breath. This causes both of us to notice a lifeboat washed up on shore with some supplies just scattered around it. There must be other survivors of the crash. I'm really hoping that Riley is one of them. If he's not, well, I don't know what I'll do. Continuing along the path just a little bit more, there was a tree trunk connecting two sides of the cliff that definitely did not look stable.

Nonetheless, we make our way across, with me slipping only once and having to go the rest of the way dangling off the side of it until Lara helped me up on the other side. I breathe deeply, probably scared out of my mind, even though it was already over. In my mind, I knew there was still more things to come, things that I knew I would definitely not like. We continue along the path until it we come across Sam's camera and other supplies such as matches and a radio, and no one responded.

It starts raining as we end up on in a forest where there was an abandoned camp. Lara and I gather supplies to set up a camp fire and use our only match to light it on fire. I was growing hungrier by the second, but I knew it would be a terrible thing to complain about. Lara starts looking at the camera that we found to find footage from our argument from earlier. "Ashton, this is all our fault, isn't it?"

I wanted to make her feel better, but there was really no way around the fact. I lightly nod at the sad thought. I can see light tears flow down her face as she keeps watching the camera to see all the footage that Sam had taken while I slowly drift off to sleep. I know it was probably a bad idea, but running for your life like that can make anybody tired, especially a twenty-one year old girl.


	4. Chapter 4

I wake up to see meat cooking over the fire, and it was very evident to tell that it had stopped raining. Lara had a look of sadness on her face as she watched the meat cook. "Is it deer?" I ask lightly as she just barely nods. I check to make sure it's cooked and take it off the fire, eating some food. I notice that Lara had a bow wrapped around her body and there was an extra one lying next to her with what looked to be about twenty arrows.

"I found these. I thought they would be useful." I smile at her and put it on the same way as she did, attaching the quiver to my back so that I could easily reach the arrows. I tighten my ponytail to keep it from falling down anymore and watch the fire intently since I had nothing better to do. Suddenly, I heard the radio start to go off, and I could immediately tell that it was Roth. "Roth? Is that you?!" Lara yells, causing me to perk up quickly.

"Lara? Ashton? Where are you guys?! Are you safe?" We answer his questions as he tells us that we need to start making our way over to him. I really wish that he could have came and gotten us, but we were not the only ones that needed him, and we were more than capable of making it back all by ourselves, something that I was definitely sure about. I sigh as we both stand up to make our way over to the smoke that we saw in the distant. We were guessing that's where the others were. I hope that we were right.

We make our way out of the forest slowly. I didn't want to alert anyone. I knew that we were not the only ones that were inhabiting this island. There was music coming a little shack, which led down to a sewer underneath the ground. The door slammed close, so there was definitely no way to go except down, even though it was a really bad idea.

There were strange markings on the ground and skulls lining the walls. As we moved closer, the music got louder and louder and we found some pry axes that we could use to open the door that was jammed shut. The only bad part was that the pry axe was stuck in some meat, and I am really hoping that it was deer meat and not what I'm thinking it was.

We make it through the sewer and make it out of the forest. There was path leading uphill, and I could already hear Sam and some random guy that came from nowhere. We sneak around the wall until Sam spots us after she was finished talking to Reyes over the radio. "Lara! Ashton! Are you guys okay?" She sees that we noticed the strange man and speaks up for him. "Look, he bandaged my foot."

"It's the least I could do." the strange man says. "I'm Mathias. I'm a teacher. I guess you could say that I'm not really cut out for island life." he says as he chuckles at himself. We both shake his hand, me with a lot of hesitation. This guy shows up out of nowhere, and I'm supposed to just immediately trust him? Either way, I still lay on the grass almost immediately and drift off to sleep as I listen to Sam, Mathias, and Lara speaking about Yamatai and Himiko. Bad idea, guys, bad idea.

I wake up to Lara shaking me awake violently. "Ashton!" she yells. "I think Mathias took Sam!" I immediately sit up as I notice that the campfire was put out. Everything was dark, and both of them were gone. It was really eerie. Lara and I decide to split up and start looking for her. We start yelling her name as loud as we could. I hear Lara gasp in pain and wolves howling in the distant.

I quickly grab my bow, running over in her direction. I could tell she was in a bad situation. She had one foot stuck in a bear trap, and wolves were quickly approaching. I stand a little bit away from her and sniped them from the side as they appeared while Lara tried to frantically get her foot out of the bear trap.

When I knew that no more wolves were left, I quickly run over to her and help her try and free her foot. We hear Reyes in the distance and I call out for her, hoping that she could hear us over the terrible thunderstorm. Thankfully, she did, and Jonah comes running up behind her. Reyes shoots the trap loose and Jonah pulls it apart so she could get her foot out. Thank god for that.

I notice Dr. Whitman, Grim, Riley, and Alex running to catch up with Reyes and Jonah. As soon as I see Riley, I immediately rush over to him and give him a huge hug, which he gratefully returns to me. "I'm so glad you're here." I say, directing it towards everyone. "Have you seen Sam? She was with us but that guy Mathias took her somewhere. I knew we shouldn't have trusted him! We have to find them."

Dr. Whitman interjects that we also need to find Roth, and Reyes decides we need to split up. "One of us goes with Lara to find Roth, and the rest of us will look for Sam." Alex volunteers to go with Lara, but Dr. Whitman is quick to interrupt, again, and takes that spot from him. "You know how to use this?" Reyes says, handing him a pistol and giving him a threatening look. He gulps and nods yes as Lara and Dr. Whitman leave us. I personally did not want that slime ball anywhere near my best friend.

I had very mixed emotions about not having Lara with me. I was happy to be able to spend some time with Riley, but I was also nervous about not being with Lara. There isn't much that we haven't done together. I grasp Riley's hand as I watch Dr. Whitman help Lara to sit down for a moment before we started splitting up to look for Mathias, and hopefully he had Sam with him. He better or I swear I will throw the man off a cliff myself.

Riley wraps an arm around my waist carefully as we start looking anywhere and everywhere. I found a torch randomly attached to a tree, so I handed it to Riley to light my own so that we both had one. Since there was a torch in the middle of nowhere, there had to be something around here somewhere. If there was, then there is a great possibility that Sam and Mathias were nearby.

I find footprints in the mud, and it was obvious that that was the direction in which we needed to go. I'm pretty sure it was not one of us that made the prints. The mud was not very fresh, even though it was raining. It was covered over by leaves, so the footprints were fairly dry, meaning it was not one of us. Riley and I follow the footprints a little bit down the path before finding a shack that was much like the one Lara and I found earlier, but I knew it was not the same one.

"Reyes!" I say to her since she was the closest one to me besides Riley. "Get the others! I think I found something!" She gets Grim, Jonah, and Alex to come over towards us. I take a step forward, letting go of Riley's hand. He pulls me back as quick as possible, however, and looks me straight in the eye with a concerned look.

"Ashton, this is not a good idea." he speaks with so much concern in his eyes and voice that it made me want to break down and start crying out of happiness. I smile at him, but just shake my head at him, and I knew he understood when he took a step forward with me. I mean, we did find the Templar Treasure and the City of Gold, and those might have been some of the scariest things that I had ever done in my entire life. And yes, Lara was there too, if you were wondering.

There was a rustle in the bushes as a man popped out of nowhere. He had a thick Russian accent and was in a very heavy coat. He had graying hair and a beard and mustache to match. He reminded me about Grim, by the looks anyway. Probably not the attitude. "Quickly, your friends are hurt, follow me."

Yeah, probably by him. Who did he think I was? Some kind of idiot? I hear more rustling and I can see a man out of the corner of my eye, and he had an arrow nocked, ready to shoot us. I don't think I was supposed to notice since the guy followed my eyes, and immediately pulled a pistol on me. Riley took a step in front of me as soon as he did that. Oh my god.

Reyes squints at the two men and drops her gun on the ground, giving me an unnoticeable wink. I knew what she was doing. She was going to make it look like she surrendered. I take my bow off my back setting it down on the ground while secretly picking up the pistol. Reyes slightly smiled when she realized I got the message. "Alright, we'll come quietly." I whisper while Riley was protesting against it.

I quickly give him a look and he shut up. The guy tries to put his arm around my shoulder to lead me to who knows where, but I jump back suddenly, kicking the pistol out of his hand and tossing it to Reyes. The guy with the nocked arrow takes a shot at Alex, but I push him out of the way, quickly rolling back up to my feet before shooting him in the head, killing him.

I felt sick to my stomach, but I knew what I had to do. I set my gun aimed towards the other man's head, but I was quickly tackled from behind. The guy takes all of our weapons from us, putting them on his person. I knew this was not the end for me or anyone else in our crew. He ties my hands behind my back before I had time to do any damage and pushes me forward in anger and frustration probably.

He gets us to an area in the woods. We looked to be in some kind village that they had set up or something like that. He gets everyone on their knees but me. "You are quite the troublemaker, girl." the man says, also having an accent, and he comes closer to me, way too close for comfort if you ask me. I kick him where the sun does not shine and he curses, pushing me back against the wall, causing me to smack my head very hard and fall to a crumpled heap on the floor like a ragdoll. "Let go of her!" Riley yells as the man continues to get closer to me.

He pushes me against the wall in disgust as another man comes in, dragging Lara and Dr. Whitman by the arms. "Lara!" I yell, wishing that I could hug her, but both of our hands were tied behind our backs. The man that was being rude to me comes up to her as well. He basically does the same process and that makes me want to kick him again. I would have had the guy behind me not been holding my wrists in a death grip. It was really painful.

"Who are you people?" I ask in a dire attempt to figure out our situation. "What do you want with us?! We didn't do anything to you. We're just trying to get off the island, just like you!" Apparently, the man mentioned before did not appreciate my comment since his grip on my wrist tightened and he dropped me on the ground with so much force that it knocked the wind out of me.

I try and sit up, coughing and trying to catch my breath, but he did not let me. He put a dirty and muddy boot on my stomach to keep me down, causing me to flinch. I'm guessing he is the one that left the footprints. Now that I think about, Riley is right. It was really stupid to try and follow them. This was probably a trap from the very beginning, and I was stupid enough to fall for it. Way to listen to your boyfriend, Ashton.

"If they give you any trouble, kill them all! They're not worth it." a man I had just now noticed says. I think they all had thick Russian accents. It's not something that you could ever miss. That's how obvious it was. I could tell that one of the Endurance captains were contemplating on something to do. You could either see the look of acceptance on dying or determination. Surprisingly, it was hard to tell which was which.

"Don't hurt them, please!" Lara pleads with the man. She had such an obvious layer of sadness dripping out of words that made me want to cry. He pushes her back up against a tree trunk, getting unnecessarily close to her, and that made even me uncomfortable. One of the Endurance captains moved out of the corner of my eye, and I knew I had to do something soon or I knew they were going to.

Unfortunately, I now understood what their look was as one of the guys makes a daring move to head butt one of the Russian men watching over them. This gets him shot in the head, getting killed instantly. Another one runs off, and he gets shot by the men over by Lara. Riley and Dr. Whitman both run off in opposite directions, and I send a quick prayer for both of their safety, even though I didn't particularly enjoy the company of Dr. Whitman.

Lara and I get pushed to the ground as they curse and threaten us, telling us to stay put and not move a single muscle. We look at each other and immediately know what we had to do. As soon as the perverted guy was out of sight, we get up, starting to make a run from it. We could tell where the men not on our side were since they were using flashlights stupidly to make themselves clear as day. Not the best idea on their part.

We duck behind rocks, moving silently so that nobody would find us, and we always make sure to stay out of their direct line of vision. We make our way through until we hear gunshots and see fire everywhere. We duck in one of the huts that was not on fire and make our way inside.


	5. Chapter 5

I was breathing heavily, and hoping that I wasn't being too loud. Now that I got a good look at Lara, I realize that all of her weapons were missing as well. If somebody did find us, I don't know if we would be able to fend them off with just our bare hands, especially if they have guns. A man stops right in front of the hut and turns around, spotting Lara and telling her to come out. Luckily, he did not see me, so I am guessing God is on my side today. Well, I'd hope he would choose me over a group of cultists that have been stuck on this island for who knows how long.

I watch through a break in the wooden structure of the hut as he backs Lara up against a wall. He starts to put his hand on her waist, but she knees him in the groin and tries running away, but he clearly had his work cut out for him as he pulls her back to him. I figured this was my time to shine, so I sneak out of the hut through another entrance and run at him, jumping up and tackling him to the ground. He pulls a gun on me, aiming it at my face.

I quickly get up, breaking the ropes around my wrist apart and trying to get away from him. Lara kicks the gun out of his hand and I catch it, aiming it at him as he returns the favor by tackling me right back. He tries to turn the gun on me, but I win this battle and get it aimed at him, shooting him straight in the face. I couldn't help but lean over and puke up all of the deer meat that I ate earlier.

As he dies, I grab our weapons from him, and I hand Lara the pistol that he had while I take my own gun, my bow, and my quiver, and I'm surprised that all my arrows were still there. I was covered in blood, but this really wasn't the time to worry about it. Lara falls down to the ground at just the sight of him, letting out tears as she realizes we actually killed a man. Granted, he was going to kill us, but that didn't dull the shock, not even a little bit.

We continue on, nonetheless, and cross a wooden bridge to get into another area. You could hear the screams of our dying men, and the threats of the Russians. Honestly, this just felt like a bloody war. I really didn't like this. I just wanted to be back at home, cuddled into Riley's side, watching chick flicks or some other cheesy thing like that. I didn't care and it didn't matter. I just want to go home.

I could see ammo lying on the ground for Lara. I knew that the last bullet in that gun was used on killing that man, so I make a run for it. What I didn't realize was that some of the crazy men were there, probably just waiting for us. A flaming arrow gets shot at me, and I scream as it grazed my shoulder as it started gushing blood. We duck down quickly and Lara makes a move for the ammunition, loading her gun.

She sighs shakily, rising up as I tend to my shoulder as they all start to retreat as they see that she has a pistol. Lara gets a headshot on the first guy, but only hits the second guy in the leg, but it did make it easier for her to take him out. When I check to make sure that the coast was clear, another guy came out of nowhere, making a point to lock the door behind him, which gave me a perfect chance to take him out, and I took it. I pick up some more ammo and search the people we killed for anything useful, which were bullets.

The door was locked, so Lara uses her pry axe to get it open, causing sparks to go up as soon as she did. Once we get inside, the men start screaming again, attempting to burn down the hut. I cough from all the smoke but notice an area in the corner that could easily be kicked down, which I do, and it leads us to a balcony. The bridge that connected the balcony to the back side of the hut was out, so we had to both jump across, and we did it without fail.

There was a man on another balcony, so we use the bow for a silent kill, causing him to fall off of it. We climb up the wall, and get stuck at a dead end. I notice some planks that we could hold onto to make it to the platform above, and I gladly take the chance of doing so. I make it with one hand, dangling until I regained myself as we move around, heading up to the next platform. I was quite worried about what was going to happen next, but I went along with it anyways, hoping there wouldn't be an ambush of men waiting for us.

Luckily, there wasn't, just two guys talking about us, and referring to us as 'outsiders'. They talk for awhile about the Endurance, and after that, one guy turns around, probably keeping watch. Lara takes an easy shot for the one in the back. Then, she sneaks up behind the other one and kills him silently, using her bow to choke him to death as we move on. All I knew was that I wanted to get out of here and back to the crew as soon as possible.

Another man up above the cliff throws down a ladder, asking if everything was okay down here. I take my bow and shoot him off the ladder, and he yells as he falls to his death. We start climbing up the ladder, after getting some extra ammo, with Lara going first. I silently hope that no one was planning on doing the same thing to us as we did to that poor guy. However, we make it up just fine as Roth starts to talk on Lara's radio.

"Lara, Ashton, are you alright?" he asks, very concerned by the tone of his voice. "I can see smoke coming from the old ruins." We both tell him that we were fine, but Lara told him that they were killing our men and also tried to kill us as well. "Don't worry about the others right now Lara. They're going to be fine. Just focus on getting to me right now."

He stops talking on the signal as we make it to the top. Lara and I continue on and stop dead in our tracks as we hear two men talking again. At least I hope it was only two men. It seemed to be, only it was hard to tell because the accents made their voices sound really similar. I wonder if they think that about us. It'd be really cool if they did. I know this really wasn't the best time to be thinking things like this, but I needed something to distract me from the chaos that was going on around me.

There were, in fact, only two men, so Lara shoots the wall to distract them, and we snipe them both at the same time. I think I liked being sneaky and discreet. I guess I never realized it was something I'm good at. Not the killing part, though. Not that part at all. I pick up some more arrows and keep going up and up. Roth said he was top of a cliff somewhere, so it made sense to just keep going up.

We help each other up a wall and drop down into a very small room that was blocked up by some cloth and wooden planks and barrels. Lara notices a glass lantern above it all, so she shoots an arrow, causing it to fall and catch everything on fire. It disintegrates as we put the last of the fire out and continue forward. The men had heard us, and I only knew this because they had told everyone to be quiet and to listen to us, so it was clearly time to get the pistol out.

I was wrong though, since there were two people facing back to back. One was looking out over a platform, and the other was paying attention to something else. Either way, we were able to take them out with our bow, choking them. This was probably one of the most brutal ways, and it made me want to puke even more. I hope I get over that at some point. Only time will tell.

Now it was time to get the pistol out. There was no way around it. We could snipe one of them, but that would start the complicated process of quickly putting the bow up and getting the gun out. It was not hard to do, mind you; it was just hard to do it quickly and in enough time before you got shot. Getting shot was definitely not on the top of my to-do list. I take out the first guy and duck behind some cover, popping out only when I was sure they were hidden so I could surprise them with my bullets.

Lara takes care of the last few guys and we move on. There was a jump to get to the next area, and then we had to go down a zip line, using our pry axe to hold on to the rope. I'm really glad that I went on a zip line at an amusement park one time. It made me feel at least a little bit better, but the amount that it did was not enough to make me not worried. Luckily, I faced my fears, but I landed with a thud on the ground.

Lara helps me up and we move through a little crevice in the rocks. We had to move in between the two rocks if we ever wanted to get to the top. Lara goes first since she actually kind of knew how to do this, or so she said, and I don't doubt her. She climbed up there like a pro. Next I was up, and I luckily made it up without complications, but I was scared as soon as I heard gunfire in the distance, and it was where Roth said he was going to be, so that made me downright terrified.

There were wolves attacking him and I saw Riley and Roth both fighting them off, but one of the wolves would really not give up as soon as they bit onto Roth's leg. As Lara helps Roth to a sitting position by a camp in the mountain village, I hug Riley, even though I was practically covered in blood, but he didn't care about that, and I was glad.

We then walk over to Roth and Lara as he starts to stand up, making her and me freak out. "What are you doing? You need medicine and bandages!" I say to him, trying to get him to sit back down, but he wouldn't budge. He tells us that the wolves took his food pack, which had the things we needed, plus the radio transmitter that was our only hope of ever getting off of this godforsaken island, and I definitely wanted off.

We start to help Roth walk, walking on either side of him, even though we didn't really have a plan on where we were going. Roth lets out a groan of pain and starts to slip out of our arms, and we set him down gently on the ground as Lara gasps. "Oh no. No, no, no, no!" she yells, leaning over him and we get the help of Riley to drag him over to the fire, and we check his breathing and pulse. He was still alive.

We hear wolves in the distance, so I run out to check what was going on and if they were anywhere near us, and they weren't. I could see the outline of a wolf on top of a cliff, and it was the wolf that was howling. The food pack was definitely up there somewhere, we just had to find a way to get to it. Lara starts heading off in that direction, not even saying a word to me. "Do you want me to come with you?" I call after her, making sure she didn't need help.

She turns around to look at me and shakes her head. "No. I need to do this on my own. I was the one who found out about the Dragon's Triangle and took the first step in getting us here. Now look where that has gotten us. No. I'm doing this alone." I give her an encouraging smile as she turns back around, walking into the mountain village to start her climb up to the wolves' cave.


	6. Chapter 6

I sigh deeply, sitting down around the fire next to Roth, checking his pulse again. When I'm sure that he is still alive, I lean back up, scooting over next to Riley. I wasn't going to go to sleep, but I definitely wanted to lie down for a few moments.

Riley lies back on the wooden floor, and I follow suit, cuddling up next to him. He wraps his jacket around me while he was still wearing it and zips it around the two of us so we would both be warm. I wrap my arms around his waist for extra warmth. It felt amazing. Maybe Riley would be kind enough to ditch his jacket and give it to me. Of course, I wasn't going to just ask for it. If he offered, I would take it.

"Do you think the others made it out okay?" I whisper to Riley in fear of alerting the wolves that were nearby. He smiles, looking down at me and kissing me on the forehead. It felt nice. It made my insides turn to mush and made me feel warm inside better than the jacket ever could. It was definitely one of the best feelings that life can offer, even if it was just a simple kiss on the forehead.

"Yes, Ashton. You know how tough they all are. They probably made it out with only a few scratches and bruises." That statement made me feel hopeful and smile again at him. He pulled me in even closer – if that was even possible – as I watched the environment around us. I was really hoping that Lara would make it back just fine. I don't mind being with Riley, but under these circumstances, Lara being on her own was something that made me really nervous.

I guess I did drift to sleep since when the sun was just starting to barely peek up over the horizon, Lara was shaking me awake. I could tell that Riley didn't fall asleep, which made me feel guilty. I shouldn't have fallen asleep; especially when he stayed awake all by himself to make sure Roth was going to be safe from the wolves. Riley unzipped the jacket so I could sit up, and I shivered from the lack of warmth.

Riley noticed as he handed me his hoodie, and I smiled at him. I totally called it, even though I wouldn't tell it to his face, of course. He was too much of a gentleman to be anything but predictable when it comes to dating him. I thank him and put the jacket on. He smiles and kisses me on the cheek, draping an arm over my shoulder as Lara begins to patch up Roth's wound.

She also covers my wound from the flaming arrow grazing it, and her own from the spike going through her side. Hers was definitely worse than mine, and Roth's was definitely worse than both of ours put together. I was thankful that Riley didn't have any wounds. More wounds mean more medicine and bandages used, and being wounded was not fun, and I can speak from experience.

A couple hours later, it had stopped raining, but the sun was still hidden behind gloomy, gray clouds that looked really sad. Roth had woken up about ten minutes ago, much to everyone's delight. I knew that we were all contemplating over what we had to do next, even though no one was saying anything. "I'm assuming that the plan is to take the transmitter up to the radio tower?" Riley asks, talking to no one in particular, but just kind of putting it out there for us to answer.

"That would give us a strong signal, and would be our best bet of ever getting off this island." Roth says, and I sigh, knowing that only one of us could go, and I knew it wasn't going to be Lara since she just made the last trip. It wasn't going to be either Roth or Riley for obvious reasons, so that just left the climb up to me. And man, was it high up. There is no doubt that I'll run into the cultists on the way up as well.

"I'll go." I sigh, already accepting my fate, knowing that I had to be the one. Roth gives me a look as if to say good luck, and he gives me another pry axe that could be used for climbing. "If I'm not back by sunrise tomorrow, please try and come find me." I practically whimper, knowing that I would not be able to do this.

I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer on myself, but I know it's true. Who knows what lies ahead on the way to the radio tower? And who's to say that it'll even work when we get up there? I knew I had to take my chances though, so I stand up after Roth, Lara, and Riley all give me a hug and tell me to be careful. I grab the radio transmitter and leave the safe haven of the campsite. "Wait, Ashton!" Riley yells after me, pulling me by the arm and turning around to give me a passionate kiss, just in case something happens, which we both know probably will. I smile at him one last time, and turn around, starting the climb to the radio tower.

I see more of the mountain village, but there really wasn't much to see. It was pretty run down by the looks of it. I see some chickens running around on the ground right next to some craggy walls. I look at the axe at my side and sigh. Climbing was not one of my specialties. I walk towards it, examining it to make sure I could get to the top and then back up. I get a running start with my pry axe out, slamming it as hard into the rock as I could after my jump. I get a footing and look at all that was left to go before taking the axe out, going up higher and pulling myself up.

I get up on the top of the cliff by climbing and notice an airplane wing. It was leading to the very top of the airplane that had been broken off. It looks like we weren't the only ones that got stranded here. Hopefully any other survivors we come across won't be murderers too. I step off the very unstable plane quickly and start climbing again.

My arms were becoming tired, and I wasn't even halfway there. I finally make it to an area near the top of the waterfall. There was a broken tree with a rope tied around it. I find some more rocks I could climb in the distance, but only after jumping a gap where falling would most likely mean death for me.

"Hey, you find anything?" a man yells over the rushing waters of the water fall as it started to rain again. I make the jump and start climbing up to get on top of a platform, hiding behind some boxes that I'm guessing the people here left lying around for some reason. I wait for the men to finish talking and I pick off the one that was alone by himself very easily with a headshot. The next two would be hard to get without them setting off a flare and alerting other men around them, if there were any.

I notice a glass lantern directly above them, and I take the opportunity, shooting it with my arrows. It landed on the first man's head, knocking him out as he burnt to death. I nock an arrow and take out the other one before he could even notice me. I wait for about two or three more minutes before I was sure that nobody else was coming and I come out from my hiding spot.

I make the jump to some rocks that were stuck with the water rushing by. There was a wooden bridge up above, so I knew I had to climb. I make the jump, sticking my pry axe into the rocks with ease. I begin climbing up again and finally make it to the bridge. As I start to cross the bridge, however, there was creaking underneath me. Things started breaking and falling as I ran across as fast I could, taking a daring leap to the rock wall. I can barely hold on as I was dangling by one hand, but I make it up okay.

I sigh in relief, glad that that was over with. Just think about what would have happened if I hadn't of made that jump. I can imagine that it would really hurt. What did I ever do to get myself into this? I don't think I deserved this. I'm sure Dr. Whitman just thinks that we'll have such a story to tell. That, however, is only if we even live to tell about it.

As I make it to the top, Reyes speaks to me on the radio, but quickly gives it to Alex as I inform her about the radio tower. "Hey Ash." he utters, sounding really depressed to me. I give an encouraging grin even though he wasn't even there to see it. "You're going to need to find the communications console. It's going to look like a bunch of old switchboards." Alex finishes as I tell him I'll fill him in and put the radio clipped back on my belt.

I squint up ahead to see outlines of people, and they looked to be asleep. I was up above them, and my only way to get in their direction was to go down on a zip line. I first take my bow and snipe as many as I can from this far away, which really wasn't much. I was trying to be stealthy about this, and I was not going to bring the pistol out unless I had to, like if they had bigger guns. I descend down the rope and land with a thud as I hear the men warning each other about my presence as a flare goes off and all of them wake up.


	7. Chapter 7

"Please…" I try, pleading with the men to stop. "You don't need to do this!" Something tells me they didn't want to stop and have a little congregation about it either. The men still advance as they hide behind broken rocks. They were just tall enough to hide their bodies and mine when we were crouching down low. I hurriedly switch from by bow to my pistol, praying for a better weapon sooner or later. I mean, the pistol is great, but it is not going to last me long when my opponents have machine guns and all I have is this puny little gun.

I get a headshot before a man throws a Molotov in my direction. I quickly switch rocks that I was hiding behind as I just barely miss it exploding. It shatters into a million pieces as there was fire right where I was standing only moments before. A man with a sword comes strutting straight towards me like an idiot, and I quickly pick him off with no trouble. He didn't even have any kind of protection. He was just in regular clothes. I don't know if he was like a sacrifice to try and stop me or what.

I hide back behind a rock as the guy with the Molotov decides to throw another one, and I run to shove him while he was setting up another one. This causes him to drop it, and me to back out of the way and behind a rock before it ever hits the ground, causing me to be fine and him to burn to death. I check to make sure there are no more men left before pushing forward. I hated doing this. Every single time I killed someone, I wanted to puke up all the food in my stomach that I didn't have.

I keep going and move through a tiny opening in the rocks to get to a campfire. Since I was shivering and my teeth were clattering, I decide to sit down and warm up for at least a minute or two. I just wanted to find Sam, find Mathias and make sure he pays for what he has done, and send out the SOS. I wanted to leave. I wanted to go home and never set foot on another island again. Or at least until I sleep this whole experience off and that would probably not be a short period of time.

I stand back up, stretching my legs a little bit by walking around. I start pacing back and forth, wondering what I could do next. I'm almost out of ammunition, and I forgot to check the men back there to see if they had any on them. I didn't want to go back there, just in case some men had found the bodies and put two and two together that there was someone here that definitely wasn't supposed to be here.

I move forward, and duck down again behind a car as I hear two men talking and a machine gun pointed in my direction if I were to reveal myself. I ready my bow and I take a very risky shot to take out the light. The light helped the guy controlling the machine gun see what was going on down below. If he couldn't see me, he couldn't shoot me. Luckily, the light went out and they just blamed it on the bulb burning out, claiming it happened all the time, but I don't see how they could keep replacing it if they were stranded on this godforsaken island along with the rest of us.

I took out the man standing at the very back without bringing attention to myself, and then took care of the other two, continuing on. After all, I've got to just keep moving. I really can't look back on any of this, can I? What's done is done. Any of the men that I have killed so far have families and lives somewhere in the world, and I just ruined any of their chances of getting off the island. Granted, they were going to take away my chance as well, but that still didn't make me feel any better about the situation.

I loot ammo off of them since I was already low, and head through the next door into a building. The building was obviously very run down, but I guess it's where this group of men decided to set up base for the night. There was a man working on what looked to be something electrical inside.

I pick up more arrows that they had left lying around and I take him out quickly and quietly. I sneak around the wall and take out his buddies on the stair as well, looting them all for ammunition and arrows. That was really something that I needed right now. I check for the coast to be clear and continue up the stairs, hoping that there wasn't anybody I missed or that would find me and alert everyone on the premises of my location.

As I make my way up, I reach the top area and see a man out of the corner of my eye. Unfortunately, it was too late before I completely noticed him, and he set off a flare, alerting the others. I figure now would be the perfect time to get the pistol out, so I do that and take out the first guy as men start to come up the stairs. I take care of them, but I wouldn't have gotten shot in the stomach had I not ducked down just in time for the bullet to fly over my head and most likely make a hole in the wall behind me.

As soon as I deal with everyone, the walkway was out, so I had to make my way across by jumping, which actually worked just fine. Of course, I almost slipped, but I was able to carefully and quickly regain my footing, scrambling up the next wall and jogging along the catwalk. It had barbed wire surrounding it in so many places that I had to be careful not to get too close to it.

I see a zip line and I figure that it was my best bet to getting where I needed to go, so I just went with it. The sun was just starting to go down on the horizon, and it made me nervous. I really don't like the dark. The dark had always made me nervous, ever since I was a little kid. I think it was mostly because of the scary stories that my dad told. He wasn't trying to scare me on purpose, but I was the one that begged him to tell the stories. I apparently loved being scared senseless.

The zip line took me into a building and I had to let go over a roof. I fell in water, which was absolutely freezing. It was even colder than it was in the air. I could smell the sharpness of the cold as I continue forward. I had goose bumps all down my arms, even with Riley's jacket on. I hope he didn't mind me getting it wet, but under these circumstances, I'm sure he wouldn't mind, not even a little bit.

I was worried that the men had heard me come splashing in when they started talking, but thankfully it was just about getting power to the men downstairs. Even though this probably wasn't the best time, I grabbed what looked to be a journal off the desk. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but there is a possibility that whatever is in here could somehow tell me what Mathias was planning to do with Sam. That is, if he even still had her, which I'm hoping he did.

"_For better or worse, I now follow Father Mathias. If I'm going to be stuck on this island, at least I have the best possible job. He calls me his first Solarii. Mathias might be insane, but he's smart and dangerous. He knows things about this island. I believe he's our only chance of ever getting out of here._

_Mathias keeps us happy. We control the guns and the food. Anything the storms bring to this island is ours and we decide the fate of any new survivor. Any who defy us are killed. We're masters of this messed up prison._"

Okay, so Mathias was clearly behind something, meaning he most likely still had Sam. And what are the Solarii anyways? Was it was Mathias' group of cultists in called. The word clearly sounds Japanese, so it might be related to Yamatai and Himiko if this island is even the right part of the Dragon's Triangle that we just happened to wash up on. I sure hope that Lara and I were right about it being in the Dragon's Triangle. Otherwise, some weird things were going on around here for no reason.

There looked to be some gas coming out of the pipes up ahead. I try turning it with my bare hands, but it wouldn't budge, so I just go ahead and use my pry axe to open it. I just hope I wouldn't break the handle off. If I did that, the gas would probably spill out of pipes everywhere, and that's really not good, considering I'm pretty sure the gas was toxic. If I even got anywhere near it, I would start coughing up a storm. No pun was intended there.

The gas gets turned off and I'm able to crouch down and go through a room filled with pipes. It was more like a hallway, but either way, it still led into the next room where the two men from earlier were talking not too far away from my current position. The men were at the end of the hallway, and they were standing right next to an explosive barrel. Okay, clearly they are idiots, or they just didn't get the memo that an outsider had breached the arrow. I shoot a bullet right through it, but before they even had any time to react, they were dead.

I brace myself for any incoming men that had heard the explosion, but there were none. I thought it was a little fishy that it was only those two men, but I decide not to question it for now and just keep my guard up and stay on my toes. I head up the stairs nearby as I hear a clattering above me, so I get my pistol back out, just in case. A man falls from the vent in the ceiling, causing me to just about jump out of my skin in fear. He was another one of those guys that didn't have any protection, just swords.

Either way, I let him chase me down the stairs, and I shoot him in the leg, making him fall to the ground. I quickly grab a brick – which was the nearest heavy object I could find – and I whale it at his face, killing the poor guy. I know he would have cut me right in half with that sword, but it didn't make me feel any better, as I have said many previous times before just killing this guy. I lean over again and puke, but I had no food left in me, so my throat burns as hydrochloric acid comes up instead.

I wipe my mouth off hastily on my pant leg and keep pushing forward, no matter how weak in the knees I felt, and let me tell you, it was a lot. I go through the same area that that man did. I learned it was not a vent in the ceiling, but rather a hole in the wall that led to the next room. I scramble up the wall, grabbing onto the edge and pulling myself up and over.

In the next room, there was another hole in the wall that I could get to by climbing on a metal cabinet turned on its side. There were lanterns scattered on the floor everywhere. I see the gas pipes in the next room that had glass on both sides and suddenly got an idea. The glass looked weak, but not weak enough to shoot and break. Surely that gas was flammable, right?

I do the same process as last time – up and over – to get to the next room. I use my pry axe to break the turning wheel off of the pipes so that the gas was released. I cough, standing back and backing away as I hear a noise coming from the left of me. It was a man, and it was very easy to tell he had an AK-47, and I didn't even know guns very well. He was trying to use the butt of it to break the glass and get through to me. "There's nowhere to run now, outsider!" he yells like a battle cry as he continues to hack away.

I quickly exit the room, but not because I was really afraid of him, but because the gas in there was really starting to get to me. I grab one of the lanterns off the floor, still going through with my original plan, even if that meant killing him. I carefully aim as I throw the lantern into the next room, causing a huge explosion as I duck behind a metal plate that was sitting up on some trash littered on the ground "Hey, what are you doing?!" the guy yells before screaming, and I was pretty certain he died until I heard him scream in agony again and coughing shakily.

I walk over to him, and he had metal concrete crushing him. I take the AK-47 from him and stick it behind my back, keeping it in place with a strap. I also take some ammo that he had lying next to him, probably just for backup in case he ever did get to me, but he probably also thought I wouldn't have been smarter than him for just a stupid little girl. You thought wrong, buddy.

"Just end it…please." he pleads with me in his dying breaths. "Please, just kill me now." He started coughing, and I could tell that it was straining him to get those last few words out. "I don't want to die like this. Please just let me die by your hand." I couldn't help but take pity on him. I roll the gun over in my hands a couple times. Maybe this was special to him. Even if he was the bad guy, I would definitely use it with pride. I decide to grant him his one last favor, but when I do, I still mutter a few words. "Go to hell."


	8. Chapter 8

I sigh, barely believing I did that, but still partway believing it. I move through the next room, not expecting what came next. "Light her up!" some more men yell, and suddenly, all the lights seem to come on, practically blinding me due to the low lighting in the last few rooms. They didn't have any guns, just swords, so I don't think they were expecting me to have any guns. I pull out the AK-47 and start getting as many as I could before they realized I had a gun and started ducking down behind things.

I do the same, safely taking out men from behind some metal barrels that I were sure didn't have any fuel in them. I take out the last guy on the upper floor, looting all of their bodies for ammo. There wasn't much else that I needed to do so I just head into the next room without caution, which probably was not a good idea. Another man pops out of another vent in the ceiling, and he had a sword. I was quite unprepared, so I had to scramble a few times to miss his sword.

Once I regain my footing, I quickly take him out without missing a beat. I don't know if I was getting better at taking these men out, or it was just becoming easier. I didn't like that it was becoming easier if that was the case. Giving up was definitely one thing that totally annoyed me about people. Some people just give up before they even try, accepting their fate. Come to think about, that is kind of what I did.

I use the pry axe on the door at the end of the hall and head into the control room. It looked absolutely wrecked, with leaves all over the panel, chairs knocked over, and practically everything being broken. I wipe away some of the leaves, trying the handle, but it just broke right off. I get worried as I start pacing around the room, thinking about any possible solutions. In the end, I just decide to get Riley on the radio to help me. "Riley? Are you there?" I ask, out of breath from running so fast and being very stressed out and worried. "The control panel is totaled." I breath out, wondering what to do next.

He curses before answering me. "You're going to have to patch in manually through the maintenance panel. On old towers, the panels are high up. There is a high possibility that it is on the top of the tower." I tell him that I would get right on that, but he speaks again before I could put my radio back up. "Oh, and Ash? Please be careful." he whispers, barely audible, but I was still able to catch it.

"Don't worry, Riley." I whisper back to him, making this almost our special moment from who knows how far apart. "I'll be back in your arms before you know it." I can almost hear the smile in his voice as we both put our radios up as I move through a hole in the wall. There were strange arrows on the wall that were pointing to the hole. Right next to them were some strange marking of what looked like a house. Either way, I still crouch down, going through as best as I could.

It was easy to tell that the pipes in this little hallway area were hot, so I had to be really careful to not come in contact with them and to miss the steam coming out of some of the pipes. I don't if they were just busting or it was deliberate or what. All I knew that when I could feel sweat on my forehead and my throat drying up, I had to get out of there, and fast. That tower better work after all this. I had to lie down on my side to kick the vent open, but I eventually got it off.

The fresh air felt really nice, but for some reason, it was snowing. That made me really glad that I had Riley's jacket on still. The weird part about it was that it was snowing. It was now day time, but it still felt weird to be snowing. Why would there be snow on a practically tropical island? Then again, it didn't make sense why there was a storm coming out of the middle of nowhere that could take down our ship, but either way, it was still a phenomenon.

I have to cross a bridge by going across a wooden beam that used to be the support of the bridge. A really bad time to realize you have a new fear of heights, Ashton. I make it across, and I had to move carefully around a truck that just left a tiny space for me to pass. I start to go across, and a man pops out from behind the truck. He grabs a hold of my waist and I quickly get a grip on the truck with my hands, pulling against him as hard as I could.

He had my legs in a death grip, and I knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to throw me off the bridge and down what looked to be a 500 feet drop by my estimation. I struggle to where he only had my feet and was barely off the edge. I finally get one foot free and kick him square in the face, causing him to take the drop instead of me. The lack of anything holding my legs made them fall to the ground, hitting my ankle on the ground with a very powerful force.

I'm pretty sure that while I was struggling, I had either twisted or sprained my ankle, and that collision definitely did not make it feel better. I shakily let go of the truck, and get my AK-47 out since I knew that more men would be coming, and I was right. I hear a whistle, and then everything took off. I fought my way through until I got to hide behind a barrel where there were was a building in front of me. That building had about ten men just aiming straight for me, and about two or three explosive barrels on the second floor. I take my chance, and I shoot it.

It exploded and killed all of the men that decided to perch there, trying to get an aim on me. I move forward, and the door is suddenly heaved open by two men. A third man was completely decked out in armor and to top it all off, he had a riot shield. "Out of the way!" he commands, pushing his two comrades out of the way. "She's mine!" I gasp, ducking behind a stone barrier to reload very quickly before preparing myself.

I could tell from observing that all he had was a sword, and every time he went to swing it, his body would be exposed. I had to let him swing at me, but dodge last second and get a bullet on him. I sigh heavily. This was not going to be easy. I somehow manage to pull it off, and I escape with only a huge cut running down my left arm that was gushing blood. I know that sounds bad, but it was better than what the other man got away with, and he didn't even get away. He was lying on the ground, dead.

I don't even worry about my arm as I get my pistol out and put my jacket back on to stop the bleeding, ready to get some headshots, doubting that they would have any more men that were decked out in so much armor. "Oh, she's still alive!" a man yells as the door opens back up. I quickly take him out before he could throw his Molotov and it explodes on his body. "Yes…still alive!" I yell and enter the building that he had just come from. I head up the stairs and get into an outside area. I climb those steps and I can see the radio tower in the distance.

The only way to get to it was on a zip line, and the radio tower was higher than the platform, so I had to get on the rope and climb up until I reach the radio tower, dropping myself down. I make my way around the platform on the radio tower to get to a ladder. I check for stability and start climbing up one step at a time. Part of the ladder falls down as I was on my way, but I'm able to stay on the ladder. I get to the next one and climb all the way up that. I grab the thick pole for support as I look down, which probably wasn't a good idea.

I start climbing up what looked to be half of a ladder. Near the top, there was a section where the bars had been broken off, but it was still enough to balance my feet on by the looks of it. I stretch as far as I can, reaching for the next bar that was complete, and I make the jump. It breaks as I grab onto it, but it still supported my weight. I climb the rest of the way and make it to the top where there was a place to sit while I worked on the tower.

I open the maintenance panel and set the radio transmitter inside so that it would be close enough to pick up any kind of signal. "Okay, Riley." I say, putting the two-way radio on top while I talk to him. "I'm here. What do I do now?" Everything looked so old and confusing. I'm really hoping that it still worked, especially with all my effort to get here. It was starting to get colder at the higher altitude, so I zip Riley's jacket up, smiling to myself.

"Thank god you're okay, Ashton!" Riley exclaims out of joy as he then tells me what to do next. "The tower will – or at least should – boost the signal from the transmitter. Find the emergency channel and get a clear signal before you broadcast the SOS." I nod to myself and start tuning the radio until I start to hear the channel. I then adjust it some more so there wasn't any static left.

"Mayday, this is Ashton Rooker of the Endurance. We are shipwrecked on an island in the Dragon's Triangle. Please send help immediately." I say, hoping for any kind of response. Things were starting to look bleak when there wasn't a response for about ten seconds, but after that, the signal starts coming through. I gasp in excitement as the man on the emergency broadcast channel starts speaking to me.


	9. Chapter 9

"This is aircraft N177A." he says while I let out a huge sigh of relief and happiness. "We have been tracking your ship since you sent out that first SOS. We have your coordinates, but if you could start a fire so we can see you, that would be great." I tell him I'll figure something out as he gets off the radio and I hear Riley cheering through the two-way radio. I then hear Alex chime in as well from his own side.

"Ashton, you are amazing!" he yells and I smile to myself. I start making my way back down the broadcast tower until I find a zip line that led down into a completely different area. I make the leap for it and latch on at last second. I go all the way down, and there were there were thankfully no men anywhere. I see fuel tanks, so I take break the handle off with my pry axe, spilling it everywhere. Now I just needed fire.

I found something to ignite it with in a little bunker that was completed abandoned and destroyed. I use it to light a torch, and then I drop that on the fuel, quickly backing up before the fire gets to the actually fuel tanks, causing the bigger explosion. The fire stayed behind and I could see the plane in the sky. I start waving my arms around like a madwoman, and suddenly I heard a large crack of lightning. The plane then started to explode in various places, and I started running as fast as I could since it was coming in my direction.

I barely miss getting hit by the plane as I take a huge leap to land on a very steep hill made out of dirt as I started sliding downward, all the debris of the plane catching up to me. I slide all the way down until I get to a wooden platform, almost falling off the edge. I pull myself back up, and then see the plane coming again. I take a jump to the next platform which looked to be a roof and looked up to the sky. "Help!" the pilot yelled as he was parachuting down to who knows where. I had to get to him. I had to find a way back to the mountain village.

I swing on the end of a banner into the next building where I break the weak wood with my body. I climb up a ramp and jump onto the roof, and that building started to collapse. I make another jump to a box that looked to be containing supplies and was hanging from another building that was starting to fall. Everything was falling down, so I knew I had to move quickly. I move from building to building until I finally get to the one where the pilot was located at.

"Ashton, are you there?" I hear Lara say on the radio as a man with a riot shield kills the pilot. I gasp, covering it with my hands as if that would make a difference. I do the same technique as before, but this time I had to be super careful. If I wasn't, he could easily hit me and knock me off the edge, something I was not willing to do, especially after I already came this far. I take him out, and without even looting his body for ammo, I push him off the side, falling to the ground, even though he was already.

It wasn't even necessary to kill him. The pilot, I mean. He literally just got here and didn't even do anything, yet he was deemed as the bad guy without him even knowing what the heck was going on. I'm kind of with the pilot on this. I don't get what's going on here. That storm came out of absolutely nowhere, and I heard a woman's voice whispering "No one leaves," in Japanese as the plane started to come down. I shakily let out a breath a take a look at my surroundings. I could already tell that I was near the mountain village. Well, at least I was closer that I was before.

I head across a gap and start walking down the path and then up some stone stairs. "Ashton!" I hear Lara yell over the radio. "What just happened?!" I slowly tell her what I think happened, but I'm not really sure on the matter. "Okay, Ash, you're close to me. I could see the crash from here." She was about to stop talking, but then she quickly added something else. "Oh, and Riley, Roth, and I all want you to be super careful out there, okay?" I tell her okay and smile to myself, putting the radio back at my belt.

I continue on, but all of the sudden, a machine gun started firing at me. There was no one else, just the men up top. I find some rope that I could use with my arrows, so I attach it to part of the building that the machine gun was on and I pull as hard as I could, bringing down the weak building and the men in it. I start taking care of the others with my pistol, and once they are all gone, I pull a giant box wrapped in rope in my direction so I could climb on top of it. I barely make the jump, but still climb up regardless.

I make my way all the way back to the mountain village through a cave to find Roth, Lara, and Riley all standing there and looking out at the horizon. The plane had crashed right where they were before. I'm really glad that they had moved earlier. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to them? I shudder, not even wanting to think about that right now. I see a blue smoke signal off in the distance as Riley wraps an arm around my waist, and I still had his jacket on. I think that made him smile.

"Mayday, mayday, this is co-pilot Jessop of aircraft N177A. I got badly hurt when I landed and need urgent aid, please respond. I've deployed a smoke signal." We all stay quiet as Captain Jessop broadcasts his message over the radio. He couldn't hear Lara as she tried to respond to him. "I need to get to him." Lara says as Roth tries to talk her out of it, but I was right there with her, even though I knew I couldn't be the one to go. My arm was killing me, and if I didn't do anything about it soon, I knew that it would definitely get infected.

She just leaves anyways, no matter what Roth said, leaving Riley, Roth, and I all by ourselves. I would get to her eventually, just not now. I shrug the jacket off, asking Roth for the first aid kit. He volunteers to do it for me, which I gladly accept as he bandages practically my whole arm after putting medicine on it. That was going to be such an ugly scar when it fully heals. I don't really know why I'm complaining, since Lara's is going to be so much worse. I mean, she had a spike go through her side for crying out loud.

I hand the jacket to Riley since it was getting warmer and he puts it around his waist. I put all my weapons back on, and then tell the other two where I was going. "I'm going with her. It's my fault that he's here." They both nod, understanding as I follow in Lara's path, and luckily, she had killed all the men in between me and her. I finally catch up to her, and she must have seen me coming since she was waiting by the blue smoke signal, but Captain Jessop was not there.

Lara and I move through a gate, walking down the path until we reach a very dark cave. We both light our torches and try and find a way out of there. We find our way to some very old Japanese ruins, by the looks of it. They pre-date the Kofun period, and that was almost all I could really tell about it. We make our way outside, and make it to an old Japanese palace. It was absolutely beautiful.

"Captain Jessop?" Lara calls over the bridge, and I notice the man on the opposite side of the bridge for the first time. He didn't respond. We approach him, and I knew he was almost dead the minute I laid eyes on him. He was covered in blood, and he couldn't even speak. I finally notice a man perched above us, and he threw down about four or five tanks of fuel, shooting them with a flaming arrow, but not before we make it off the bridge. I almost didn't make it off though. I had to jump last second, and the explosion sent me flying through the air.

I could tell that the explosion had knocked Lara out, and I didn't really know what to do now. I could see Mathias standing on the opposite side of the now destroyed bridge. "For two ignorant children, you have given me too much trouble. It's a shame too. You could have been such good recruits. You're just too naïve and predictable. Kill them both!" he finishes, probably almost yelling at the top of his lungs. Look, I know you're angry, but there is no need to shout!

For the first time, I notice men one either side of us, and Lara wasn't waking up any time soon. One of them knocks me to the ground, and I hit my head so hard that I started to lose my vision. "The Oni!" someone yells as I hear deep growling and heavy footsteps. That's the last thing I saw.


	10. Chapter 10

I gasp, awaking with a start, only I wasn't lying in a bed. I was hanging. I was hanging by my hands, tied with a rope, and my head was aching, along with the rest of my body. I saw blood dripping, and I look up at my arm. My wound had reopened and I was bleeding terribly. I had to get down. I had to get out of this room, wherever I was. I finally take a look around the room.

It was almost identical to what I was in the very beginning of this messed up adventure, only there was a door, and I could see light coming through. "Ashton?!" I hear Lara yell, and I have to turn in a very weird angle to see her. She was directly behind me. Déjà vu, anyone? "We have got to get down, she exclaims, and I agree with her. "Let me help you." she offers.

"Okay," I say, readying myself. "If I can swing enough, I should be able to pull the rope off." Lara raises her feet to my back and pushes as hard as she can. She does this a couple more times before I am able to keep my legs up myself, and I push with everything I have to get the ropes off. They break unexpectedly, and I gasp as I fall to the ground, banging my head on the floor. I lie there for a few seconds, about to pass out before I quickly collect myself and help Lara get down.

I stand on a pile of what looks to be severed limbs, and I jump, grabbing her feet and pulling her down. She definitely had a softer landing than I did, but I knew right now was not the time to complain. I hear the same deep, loud growling that I heard back at the monastery entrance, and I knew he was coming for both of us. He probably heard me falling to the ground.

In any case, I spot a hole in the wall that looked to be there for awhile, but was hastily covered by wooden planks. I kick them off quickly, and we both crawl in, trying not to gag at the bloody mess that was lying all around us. I hear the door being dragged on the floor heavily as the door opens. There are heavy footsteps, and I can tell that they are coming near us. Lara signals me to be quiet and not make a sound, and I nod, definitely agreeing with her.

The huge Stormguard was inhumane, and was dragging a huge club on the ground, making sparks, and a noise like nails running down a chalkboard, making me grit my teeth in disgust. He stops right in front of us, pausing, but continues on when he thinks nothing is in our area. I let out a breath I had been holding from trying to be quiet. I start breathing heavily through my mouth as we continue down the small passage. The putrid smell was really making me want to throw up again.

We move forward as the wind starts to get stronger and stronger. We come to the end, and there was barbed wire covering wooden planks that was hastily put up. There were two men, facing each other, but on the opposite sides of the little passage. Luck was definitely on our side this time around since they both happened to have shotguns, with ammo already in them, and some extra ammo on their bodies. Thanks for the good luck.

"I hope this thing still works." Lara says as she takes an aim at the barrier, shooting it to pieces so that we could jump across. One of the men from the Solarii notices and tells his friend to come in the direction that he heard the noise from. We move quickly and quietly, hoping that they would think it was just one of their men that made the shot. "They're looking for us." she whispers quietly as we continue forward, scrambling up a wall, and making into what looked to be a tomb.

Lara and I marvel over everything before taking notice of the coffin in the middle of the room. "Himiko!" I exclaim with pure excitement. "The first Sun Queen! This is Yamatai." I push the lid off the coffin a little bit, just so I could see inside. "She's really here!" I gasp, knowing that Lara was right.

She moves to the other side of the room as she examines the wall murals while I was still looking at Himiko's coffin. "Ashton, look at this!" she says, still looking with an amazed look in her eyes. "Look, it's a fire ritual, a sacrificial ritual! And then a pilgrimage to this monastery by the looks of it." she breathes in awe, moving from mural to mural. "Pouring water? And then there's Himiko." She crinkles her eyebrows in confusion as I take another look at the murals.

"Wait...Lara, it's not pouring water, it's transferring power. It was how they chose the next Sun Queen. An ascension ritual!" She smiles at me widely, knowing that I was right. We had found it. We had found the lost queen, and Yamatai. We had did it. Now the only thing we had to figure out was how to get off this godforsaken island.

All of the sudden, men start coming down on zip lines. Once we dealt with them, that would probably be our way back up. We take care of them easily, especially since we had a shotgun and they didn't. The zip lines were going to be our way up, but we saw an Oni push one of the men off of where the zip lines lead to, so I knew it was not a good idea.

Because of that, I use my arrows with the rope attached to bring a bell over Himiko's coffin over to me, causing it to swing back and break the weak and unstable wooden door. It also caused a loud noise, so I hoped no one heard us as we continued on. We shoot another barbed wire barrier and continue on a walkway. The walkway is quickly blown away by the wind, and I'm barely hanging on. The wind starts to slowly carry me away, and I knew this was it.

I start freefalling as I hear Lara yelling for me. "Ashton!" What I didn't see, though, was a wooden bridge that was not far from where I originally was, so I wouldn't get as badly hurt as dying. When I land on the bridge, it breaks, and I quickly grab onto the wooden planks, and I climb up a lengthy climb to get to where the bridge would have originally led me to, had it not broken. "Ashton!" Lara yells again, and I yell back up to her, straining my throat.

"I'm okay! Keep going! I'll meet up with you later!" I barely see her start moving again, and I examine my injuries. My ankle was probably broken, but there was nothing I could do about that. My wound had opened again and was still bleeding like crazy. I had scratches all over my arms, and my tank top was ripped almost everywhere. I was so glad that I decided to wear two tank tops. I take a step, but only to immediately fall right back down. Yeah, my ankle was totally broken.

I limp forward, my ankle popping with every step, tears running down my cheeks. It hurt so bad, but I knew I had to keep moving. I can't do anything about a broken ankle. I just had to keep pushing forward. I wipe the tears away from my cheeks. I couldn't stop them from flowing. "She's hurt!" a man yells, and I gasp, trying to limp faster, but I wasn't going anywhere. "Grab her!" Another man comes from behind me, and grabs me by the waist.

I tried struggling, but I just can't do as I go limp in his arms. There's nothing I could do. I know I'm not supposed to give up, but I just couldn't do it. Not with my ankle broken and being injured so badly. I just hoped he wouldn't kill me. "Are we going to take her to the palace with the rest of her crew?"

"Yes. We couldn't find the other woman, but might as well just take her back. Father Mathias said that she was another one of the girls causing trouble, but he wants us to keep her alive as bait." the man holding me says, and he lifts my legs up, carrying me bridal style since it seemed to be more comfortable for him. I didn't like how he was holding me, but I was too badly injured to oppose. Someone takes my weapons off me, and I am escorted to who knows where. I wasn't really paying attention since I was so dizzy.

The man sets me down on the floor of somewhere, and I rub my eyes as I hear a door slam and people starting to surround me. I look up and see Riley, Reyes, Jonah, and Alex all surrounding me. "Ashton!" Riley yells, and I quickly sit up as best as I can, wrapping my arms around him in a hug. "Are you okay?" I sigh, examining my ankle. I could tell that my ankle was really swollen, even through my boot.

"I'm pretty sure my ankle is broken." I try massaging it, but wince in pain as I retract my hand. I let out a cry. Riley grabs my hand, squeezing it as I smile up at him. "Do you know where we are?" I ask, partly scared for the answer. Reyes gives me a sad look, and I'm pretty sure that I don't want to know. "Never mind, I don't want to know." Jonah rubs my shoulder, and I realized that we were all prisoners. Well, this is just great.

Riley helps me to lean against a wall, and he sits down next to me, still holding my hand. "Do you know where Lara is?" Jonah asks, and I shake my head no. Alex moves to sit in front of me by my feet, and he takes out a mini first aid kit and he bandages my ankle for me the best that he can. I thank him, and he simply nods, sitting next to me on the other side where Riley wasn't at.

I put my combat boot on over my bandages, and check my other wounds, making sure they weren't bleeding out. They weren't, so I lean back against the wall and lean on Riley's shoulder as he grabs my hand again. I knew that we would be here for awhile, and I was scared about what was going to happen next. I think Riley could tell since he scoots closer as soon as everyone else stops paying attention to me.

It makes me upset that I was so easily taken down, even if I did have a broken ankle. I seriously hope Lara would be here soon. I knew that she would be the one to come save us. I think my broken ankle pretty much takes me out of the battle. That made me upset. I wanted to help. I wanted to help Lara get us off of this island, especially since we were both the ones to get us all into this mess, and it made me all want to burst out into tears, but I knew I couldn't do that. I knew I couldn't let the others see me cry, especially since Lara and I were the ones they were counting on as soon as we got out of this prison. I had to think of something.

I look over at Riley, and he was asleep on my shoulder. I smile as I move him to rest on my lap, and then lean back against the wall, stretching out my arms and legs. I shiver some more, and consider sleeping myself, but I needed to keep awake. There were so many things that I needed to do that I just couldn't do in my state. I just hope Lara was holding up okay.


	11. Chapter 11

I could tell that a lot of time had passed. We had taken turns at sleeping, one person keeping watch just in case Lara came. It was now my turn to stay awake as everyone else slept. I could see men down below from our hanging makeshift prison. I'm glad they weren't messing with us at all and they were just keeping watch. Then again, keeping watch wasn't a good thing either. I just hoped that Lara was coming soon to get us out of this mess.

I keep hearing explosions in every direction down below, but none of the guards noticed a single thing. I see a shadow down below, and I gasp, immediately knowing who it was. I quickly shake Riley awake, pointing him in the direction of where I saw Lara. We then quietly wake everyone else up so as to not alert the men down below of her position. I'm pretty sure she noticed me since she gave me the okay sign. She sneaks up, sniping one of the men before they notice her. She takes all the other men out with no trouble, and we all start cheering from our position up above.

"How the heck did you get in here?" Alex asks in astonishment, but I knew better than to doubt my best friend's abilities. She probably fought loads of men to even get here, and I was happy that she did that. "That was amazing." Alex breathes, totally impressed by Lara's ability. I knew she had it in her, and I was proud of her.

"I had some help from Ash and Grim." This made Reyes smile, which was something she rarely did. "He didn't make it. I'm so sorry. The men tried to use him as leverage to make me surrender, but he wouldn't let them." I breathe out a defeated sigh, wanting to cry, but I had to keep going. Riley grabs onto my hand squeezing it. "A rescue helicopter is on its way. How are you, Ash? That fall seemed terrible?"

I sigh, smiling a little bit, but only sadly. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just a broken ankle and lots of scratches, but if that bridge hadn't have been there, I would have been dead right now. Some men captured me when I could barely walk, and now here I am with the others. I think I've been waiting for a little bit less than these guys have. Is there some way to get us out?" I wonder, hoping the answer was yes.

She gives me a thumbs up and starts searching for something to get us out of here. "Wait, what fall?" Riley asks with a thick layer of concern on his voice, and I shush him for now. We would have to worry about the details later. Reyes wanted us all to jump at the same time, so we comply. It didn't work, so Lara just fills us - well, not really me - in on the Sun Queen and how this island really was Yamatai.

Lara causes a small explosion, making a platform accessible to where she could climb on top of our makeshift prison, which she does, and I could feel everything start to shake. This was really not a good thing to happen right now in a rescue mission that seemed to be going so well. "This place is becoming unstable. The floor is starting to buckle and everything is shaking." Lara says, worried. I agree with her.

"Don't worry about it, Lara." Alex says, practically unfazed by the whole situation. "Just get us out of here. She climbs on top, causing two explosions right in a row and everything really starts to explode. The floor started shaking, and then it started to crumble. Lara slides off the top of the prison, and I grab her arm last second. "I've got you, Lar." I tell her reassuringly and she gives me a quick smile before continuing her climb around the edge of the prison.

"Hold on to something!" Reyes yells as the floor of the cage collapsed and I was obviously the one that didn't really comprehend the memo. I make a grab for it last second, but don't make it. Lara just barely catches me by my wrist, and helps me up to where she was. I guess we were in this together now.

We start climbing up and around. We jump across onto a platform, and Lara and I quickly pull the wheel off of two pipes containing the flammable gas at the same time. "All right, take cover!" I yell as Lara and I use fire arrows to blow both of them up at the same time, the force of it causing the cage to make it to the other platform where daylight was coming through, and I count all four of them, positive they were all right. "Keep going!" Lara yells. "We're going to go get Sam and Whitman."

We jump across onto a cage, climbing up that, and then making our way across the gap, quickly and carefully. Everything falls as we get across, and I realize how close of a call that was. "How's your ankle?" Lara inquires and I smile, telling her it was just fine, even though that was a big fat lie. In fact, it hurt worse than you can imagine.

We continue forward through burning buildings, you know, same old stuff, different day. None of the men were fighting us. I guess they were too busy running for their lives as well. Keep moving. Just keep moving, Ashton. That's all you've got to do. We keep climbing and making it through, surviving just barely long enough to find a room that had all kinds of plans in it, probably all by Mathias. We grab whatever we can carry and just keep moving forward.

We make it to a building that wasn't on fire, and as soon as we turn the corner, I run into Dr. Whitman. Literally. I pick myself up off the floor and brush the imaginary dirt off of me, just to make him feel bad. "Lara! Ashton! I'm so glad you're here. They let me roam free as soon as they realized I wasn't a threat, and now Sam is in there." Lara and I start moving forward, but Dr. Whitman stops us. "Wait! These Solarii are an anthropological marvel!"

"They're insane murderers!" I exclaim in disbelief of how crazy he was being. "We need to get our people out of here before it is too late!" Dr. Whitman realizes this - I hope - and agrees to watch out for us. We move forward, and Mathias and a man named Dmitri were talking to Sam. As soon as Mathias and the man that came to get him left, Dmitri wasn't alive for much longer. Lara shot him through the back with an arrow where his heart was, killing him instantly.

"Lara! Oh my god, you're here!" Sam exclaims, not even paying attention to me, so I just pick the ammo off of Dmitri while they hug. I guess I wasn't included in this. I grab my weapons off of him, and also get Lara's, handing them to her while Sam was still talking. "I was beginning to think I was going crazy!" she yells as Lara tries to comfort her as best as possible. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"We need to leave before he comes back." I say quietly from my spot leaning against the pole. She looks up, surprised, and I'm pretty sure that was the first time she ever noticed me standing there. I helped save your life too, you know, even if Lara was the one who took the shot! We start heading in that direction, calling for Dr. Whitman, but he wasn't responding. We move forward as he appears from the corner with his hands tied, yelling at us to run, so that's exactly what we do.

Lara and Sam run ahead, but I stay behind to keep Mathias and his men from reaching us more quickly. I shoot part of the weak area of the wooden pole, causing it to fall down on someone, killing them as it was set on fire. "Ashton!" I hear Lara yell as I get back into the throne room. More parts of the roof came down, separating Lara and Sam from me, and I had to fight my way through. "Just keep going!" I yell as Lara ushers Sam forward, heading down the hallway.

I move through another door, heading down the stairs and taking care of the men. I look out a window and see Sam all by herself, only with a pistol and men surrounding her. "Stay back!" she yells, pointing the gun at their heads. "Stay back or I will shoot!" I had to get down to her. I don't know what point Lara got separated from Sam, but I had to help her, no matter how rude she was to me. I slide down the roof, getting my pry axe on a rope so that I could slide down.

I didn't exactly think this through since my pry axe completely cut the rope, but I pull it off epically and swing down to Sam's position, doing a roll to get off the rope. I quickly stand up and point my gun at them. "You kill her, I will kill you all!" I threaten, making sure my point was made as I stand in front of Sam. "I mean it!" They were hesitating to shoot me, and I knew it. They didn't know what Sam would do once I was dead.

Soon I see Reyes, Alex, Jonah, and Riley all join the party. They each had guns, and we were all surrounding Sam in a circle. We all start shooting, killing their men, and there wasn't a thing that they could do about it. "We can't kill them! Who knows what she'll do if we kill her friends?!" a man yells and I smirk in accomplishment. They all start surrounded us more, and I bit my lip, growing more nervous by the second.

"Let's just kill her!" another man yells, clearly talking about me. "She killed Nikolai and Dmitri! She deserves to die, whatever the consequence." I gulp as one man draws a dagger, and he comes closer to me. Everyone stares in shock, and I have to hide my smirk as I realize my plan. I let him come near me, and he holds the knife to my neck. "I will make sure you have a very painful death." he whispers in my ear, and I about gag as I smell his terrible breath. I see a helicopter in the distance, and I knew that Lara and Roth were in it. I thought they were coming for us, but they turn around, leaving us behind. You have got to be kidding me.

"Not today." I whisper menacingly as I kick him in the wrong place by bringing my leg backwards. He groans in pain as he bends his legs together, and I take this opportunity to take his dagger from him, stabbing him in the heart as I attach the weapon to my side. We all run for cover, and Reyes and I take care of all the men, moving forward. We run through the city, running across the bridge easily, and I can tell that it was because they were all focused on Lara and the rescue helicopter.

I see the helicopter crash in the distance, and I gasp, knowing they were both on it. We start running in that direction, but it took us longer than I would have liked. What if they were already dead and it was too late to save them. I don't know if I'd ever be able to forgive myself if that happened, even if it might not have been my fault.

I gasp as I see Lara crying over Roth's dead and lifeless body. I rush over to her, sitting down next to her as I watch the tears falling down her face, and I try my best to wipe them away, but they just kept coming. Pretty soon, Riley, Sam, Jonah, Alex, and Reyes all join Lara and I, and Reyes immediately rushes over to Roth while Sam goes to Lara. "Are you okay, Lara?" Are. You. Kidding. Me.

"Is she okay?!" I snap at her. I'm sorry, but she was so getting on my nerves. "Sure, Lara matters too, but do you not see the problem right here?! Roth is dead! He's not coming back, and the first thing you ask is if Lara's okay?! Cry together later, I don't care, but it's not all about her right now Sam!" I finish yelling and I breathe out of relief of getting that off my chest. "Sorry, Lara." I sigh towards her.

"It's okay, Ashton." Lara says, wiping away the tears that I didn't get earlier, and I see Sam glaring at me with annoyance, and I totally returned her feelings. Riley comes behind me and sits down, pulling me onto his lap for comfort and wrapping his arms around my waist. I cuddle into his arms a bit more as I see Reyes crying over Roth's body, and it made a few tears slip down my cheeks as well.

Everyone was silent at my outburst as Jonah starts giving out suggestions. "We need to find somewhere safe, and then make preparations. He died as a warrior...we'll send him on as one." We all agree, and we gather a lot of sticks and branches together to make a final resting place for Roth, and then Reyes uses my only torch to ignite it, but it was a very small price to pay. I let out a whimper and shudder from crying. Riley rests his jacket over my shoulders and I smile up at him, sticking my arms through and then grabbing his hand, squeezing it tight.

"That old PT boat on the beach," Reyes says suddenly, stuffing a piece of paper into her pocket. "I should be able to fix it up." We all let out a weak smile and nod at her, all signaling it was worth a shot. I loop my arm through Lara's and she decides that she needs time alone with Roth. I give her a hug one last time before I leave her behind, something I did not like, especially when she was in this fragile state. In any case, I grab tightly onto Riley as we start our journey to the beach, leaving everything and everyone behind.


End file.
